A lemon, experts declare on Turnbull's plan

The Coalition has pledged to deliver cheaper and faster broadband sooner than Labor, saving nearly $10 billion from current government projections but leaving telco experts divided over which major political party's national broadband policy is the best for Australia's short and long-term future.

The Coalition policy promises to use a combination of fibre optics and existing copper cabling to deliver a minimum of 25 megabits per second download speeds to suburban homes. It will roll out fibre to high-demand businesses and greenfield estates.

Many telco experts Fairfax Media spoke to on Tuesday believed Labor's NBN was the best solution in the long term, as it future-proofed broadband infrastructure and could be easily upgraded to higher speeds. But, in the short term, many believed the Coalition plan could be more suitable, considering the construction delays Labor has faced.

Advertisement

Mark Gregory, senior lecturer at RMIT University's school of electrical and computer engineering, said the Coalition's policy would harm Australia's economy and not future-proof the country's internet infrastructure. ''They're going to be putting Australia behind the rest of the world,'' Dr Gregory said of the Coalition plan. ''That's going to harm the next generation of Australians. It's also going to harm Australian business.''

Steve Dalby, of internet provider iiNet, which uses Labor's NBN, said he preferred Labor's plan. ''Fibre-to-the-premises is where it needs to be,'' he said.

Loading

Grahame Lynch, founder of the Australian telco industry website CommsDay, took a different view. He said Coalition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull should be given some credit for his plan - a great advance on the Coalition's previous plan.

''You're going to get an upgrade to your network quicker and cheaper and that's going to mean something that's important for a lot of people,'' he said.